Researchers have found coronaviruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the Covid-19 pandemic, in bats stored in laboratory freezers in Cambodia and Japan, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
Meanwhile, a team in Japan found another closely related coronavirus in frozen bat droppings, the study showed.
"The viruses are the first known relatives of SARS-CoV-2 to be found outside China," said the study, noting that the new findings support the World Health Organisation's search across Asia to investigate the animal origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But whether the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 passed directly from bats to people or through an intermediate host still remains unknown, reports Xinhua news agency.
Aaron Irving, an infectious-diseases researcher at Zhejiang University in China's Hangzhou, who also plans to test stored samples of bats and other mammals, said the findings suggest that other "as-yet undiscovered SARS-CoV-2 relatives" could be stored in lab freezers, it added.
(This story was published from a syndicated feed. Only the headline and picture has been edited by FIT)
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